Autoimmune Diseases – More Similarities Than Differences?

I recently heard Dr. Susan Blum, MD, MPH, author of The Immune System Recovery Plan, speaking about Autoimmune Diseases on Jonathan Landsman’s Immune System Summit. But her method and thinking are quite different from that of most medical doctors – truly, a breath of fresh air. She focuses on a whole-body approach, not just the organ system that is under attack.

We have been conditioned to believe that autoimmune diseases involve the immune system attacking a particular part of the body, causing a specific chronic disease. Those diagnosed are told that the immune system is mistaking their body part for a foreign invader, though not explaining why. For that reason, each patient is referred to a medical expert, a specialist in that field. For example, an MS patient is referred to a Neurologist, a Hashimoto’s patient, to an Endocrinologist, a Rheumatoid Arthritis patient, to a Rheumatologist.

Each autoimmune specialist treats his patients with tests and medications specific to their specialty. Patients are given drugs, specific to the part of the body that has been compromised. In most cases, these drugs are prescribed as lifelong medications, although other medications may be added at a later date, some even to deal with side effects of the original drug. They palliate the symptoms but offer no cure or even remission for the disease. But, according to Dr. Blum, all of the autoimmune diseases have a lot more in common than their diagnoses and the differences as to which organ is being attacked.

Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine is a fairly new medical model, a more holistic one, that recognizes the importance of a healthy immune system and that the body is connected, a whole organism, and searches for the root cause of dis-ease. These doctors, like Dr. Blum, spend time with their patients, collecting a detailed history and looking at their diet, lifestyle, habits, thoughts, emotions, stressors, and the toxic substances they are exposed to on a daily basis. They create an individualized treatment plan for each autoimmune patient, which can sometimes include drugs, temporarily, if required to extinguish the fire, getting the immediate flare under control, before it inflicts permanent damage to the body, as they work to help their patients make changes that will improve their state of health. Dr. Blum describes herself as having one foot in conventional medicine allowing her to use lab testing to get to a correct diagnosis, and appropriate drugs, short-term, when necessary, but her other foot is clearly planted in the holistic world.

Is this starting to sound a bit familiar? As those of you who may have already experienced, this holistic approach has been used by Naturopaths, Herbalists, and Holistic Nutritionists for decades.

Most autoimmune diseases exhibit many of the same symptoms. Dr. Blum asks her patients:

• Are you constantly exhausted?
• Do you frequently feel sick?
• Are you hot when others are cold, or cold when everyone else is warm?
• Do you have trouble thinking clearly (aka “brain fog”)?
• Do you often feel irritable?
• Are you experiencing hair loss, dry skin, or unexplained weight fluctuation?
• Do your joints ache or swell but you don’t know why?
• Do you have an overall sense of not feeling your best, but it has been going on so long it actually feels normal to you?

So, is the immune system the cause of the autoimmune problem? Do we need to take drugs that will shut down the immune system to stop the assault? On the other hand, can we survive without an immune system?

The Root Causes of Autoimmune Diseases

Triggers, confirmed by evidence-based sites, like Pub Med, include:

• Food: Allergenic and processed (Gluten, sugar, unhealthy fats, GMOs)
• Nutrient deficiencies (D3, A, C, E, Zinc, EFAs)
• Stress & Trauma (fight or flight, emotional issues, alcohol, tobacco, drugs)
• Lifestyle, including:
  • Exercise (spending too much time sitting, rather than moving)
  • Sleep (not getting the necessary 7 – 9 hours)
  • Dehydration (drinking coffee & soda, instead of water)
• EMF pollution (Excessive use of digital devices)
• Gut Microbiome (imbalanced) & Leaky Gut (proteins able to get through the barriers and travel through the bloodstream, even some to the brain) 
  • Impaired digestion leads to: 
    • Fatigue
    • Poor concentration
    • Sleep issues
    • Impaired immune function
  • Toxins – exogenous (environmental) and endogenous (created by the body) 
    • Mold (mycotoxins)
    • Beauty & hair products
    • Household cleaning & laundry detergents
    • Infections (including dental)
    • Pathogenic bacteria
    • Pesticides, chemicals, especially glyphosate (GMO foods)
    • Heavy Metals (mercury, lead, cadmium)
    • A toxic liver, due to the accumulated toxins in the body, making it unable to perform all of its 500 daily functions
  • All of the above root causes result in increased inflammation – the fire!

The whole body is connected. The immune system travels through every system of the body. Is it healthy? Is it balanced? What does it take to repair an immune system that isn’t working right?

Recommendations for Autoimmune Diseases

Dr Blum suggests:

1. Eliminate Gluten – “there is a connection to autoimmune diseases in the literature”
2. Eat an anti-inflammatory diet: (Elimination Diet) 
   1. Remove food sensitivities
   2. Work on getting rid of processed sugar, white flour, unhealthy fats
   3. Increase healthy fats: avocado, nuts & seeds, healthy fish
   4. No dairy or animal fats, processed oils
   5. Lots of fruits and vegetables – eat the rainbow
   6. Add fermented foods: Kimchi, sauerkraut, fermented cauliflower
   7. A Mediterranean Diet offers a good Framework
3. After 3 – 4 weeks, slowly re-introduce each eliminated food sensitivity, one by one, (except for gluten) and see if you have any symptoms
4. Food is medicine. Once you no longer eat the foods that trigger your symptoms, you will feel better
5. For Arthritis, eliminate nightshades: tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant
6. Food and stress have the power to have a direct effect on the immune system
7. Become aware of the stressors in your life and how you are affected. Find something you can do every day to relieve stress 
   1. Meditation
   2. Breathwork
   3. Gratitude
   4. Chew food really well (50 – 60 chews per bite)
   5. Movement: Tai Chi, Qigong, Yoga, Feldenkrais
   6. Walking in nature
8. Healing your gut 
   1. A hundred trillion bacteria in your gut are your good microbes
   2. A healthy gut includes the bacteria that helps you digest, absorb, and assimilate the food and nutrients, particularly the ones needed by your immune system, like the antioxidants, B vitamins, fats, and amino acids
   3. These beneficial bacteria help regulate and keep the barriers functioning properly
   4. Dysbiosis (imbalance of good and bad bacteria) damages the intestinal lining, leading to leaky gut – must be addressed for all autoimmune conditions
9. Detoxification
   1. The liver metabolizes, manages, and detoxifies all the toxins, with some help from the kidneys

As Holistic Nutritionists, our clients usually have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and been seen by specialists and are often on medications. Many are still feeling unwell, often due to their disease and new symptoms, side effects of the drugs they are taking.

Like Dr. Blum, we take a thorough health history, examining current symptoms and stressors, their diet, lifestyle habits, including exercise, sleep quality, energy, mood, medications, supplements, and anything else that will lead us to uncover the root causes of their disease. Prior to their initial consultation, each client completes a detailed questionnaire, designed to assess their nutrient deficiencies. All of this data enables us to better understand our client and create a customized nutrition and lifestyle plan, a step-by-step guideline allowing them to make changes, at a comfortable pace, in all areas, including correcting their internal terrain by eliminating the toxins in their homes and in their lives.

Check out: https://edisoninst.com/how-to-use-nutrition-to-fight-autoimmune-conditions/

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By Gilda Rovan, BA, RHN, ROHP, CHCP